Learning Blender: A Hands-On Guide to Creating 3D Animated Characters

Using Drivers to Control the Face Shape Keys

Now you need to tell Blender how those bones and which of their properties will control the shape keys’ values. For that, you’ll use drivers. Using drivers is something quite technical and advanced, so here you’ll only get your feet wet with the basics, but you should investigate this topic to learn how to create more complex rigs with drivers.

Creating Drivers

Divide your interface and, in one of the editors, switch to the Graph Editor. On the Graph Editor’s header, you’ll see an option that will let you switch between F-Curves and Drivers; select Drivers. (You’ll learn about F-Curves in the next chapter; they’re used for animation.)

At this point, the Drivers interface will be completely empty ...